Online recruitment activity in December registered 13 per cent year-on-year growth, but there was a marginal decline on monthly basis, says a report.

New Delhi: Online recruitment activity in December registered 13 per cent year-on-year growth, but there was a marginal decline on monthly basis, says a report. However, the outlook looks bullish and job scenario is expected to improve this year, the report said. The Monster Employment Index for December stood at 291, registering a jump of 13 per cent from the corresponding period last year, while e-recruitment activity saw a 2 per cent decline over November 2017.

"Monster Employment Index is exhibiting a relative slowdown in the pace of hiring activity in December 2017," Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com, APAC & Middle- East said, adding that the bearish response towards recruitment activities also reiterates the growing need for up-skilling in the country.

Modi said India's hiring outlook in 2017 was dampened due to introduction of radical reforms such as demonetisation, implementation of GST and a new bankruptcy regime. But these reforms would help Indian economy in mid to long term with creation of more jobs, he said.

"The biggest expectation out of the Union Budget 2018-19 would be a higher focus on job creation in key labour intensive industry sectors like manufacturing and infrastructure. We are quite optimistic that job scenario will improve in 2018," he said.

As per the report, online demand surpassed the year-ago level in 19 of the 27 industry sectors monitored by the Index. Sectorwise, Home Appliance continued to lead the year-on-year growth chart, followed by Banking/ Financial Services, Insurance space.